Review: Apple's iOS 9 update will make your life easier
Apple's latest operating system, iOS 9, launched Wednesday, giving millions of people a chance to refresh their iPhones.
Overall, iOS 9 is more about polish and under-the-hood refinements than a sweeping visual revamp; there is nothing here that's on par with the eye-searing palette changes of iOS 8. Still, there are pretty significant changes that hint at what Apple wants to do with its mobile devices going forward.
Perhaps the biggest is Apple's push into forecasting your needs, not just telling you what they are. This kind of predictive analysis might strike privacy buffs as a bit creepy. After all, the company is trying to figure out your likes and dislikes based on your phone use. And you probably don't even know that the iPhone is tracking you while you are using it. But making the phone more predictive has its benefits. Scrolling through a news feed that tries to put only headlines that you will want to read is not only cool, but is a timesaver as well.
And that really is a major theme of iOS 9: Many of its changes are subtle, shaving seconds or milliseconds off each use of the phone. That may not sound like a lot. But over the weeks and months, those small chunks of time add up. Plus, you get the feeling that everything is just a bit more at your fingertips than it was before.
When looking at a new piece of software, I try to ask one question: How does this make my life easier in everyday circumstances? Having used the beta versions of iOS 9 for several weeks, I can think of three features that have made my life better.
Search: Maybe it's just because of my job, but I'm constantly looking for apps that I know I've downloaded to my phone but can't find. In iOS 9, not only do new search features give you more options for perusing your phone, but also Siri can suggest shortcuts for your most frequently or recently used apps by powering the search. This is pretty convenient. Talking to Siri, after all, can be a little awkward in public.
The search menu also brings up frequently used contacts and timely suggestions for where to get a meal or grab a cup of coffee. In the morning, you get suggestions for breakfast; at night, you get dinner options. News headlines also adjust based on your preferences. For me, that means lots of science, technology and political news _ and almost nothing on Hollywood gossip.
It's easy to see how such a predictive feature could improve the phone experience if you're willing to trade your data for convenience. Apple's competitors have been fiddling with this notion for a long time, but it comes together well on the iPhone.
Navigation: It seems a little silly to say, but one of the best things about iOS 9 is that it's a lot easier to get around. The new font makes things much easier to read. Hopping among active apps is quicker.
And then there's a tiny little navigation arrow that appears in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Tapping that spot lets me get back to the last app I was in, saving me a lot of time throughout the day. It's a very small change but one that's made a very big difference to me.
Multi-tasking on the iPad: The addition of multi-tasking for the iPad has been one of the best things about downloading iOS 9 onto my tablet.
I used to use my iPad almost exclusively for watching videos and playing games. But with multi-tasking, doing work is far easier. For instance, I can have Messages, Mail or Safari open alongside Notes (which also got a nice update in iOS 9).
There are three ways to multi-task on newer models of the iPad. There's a feature called Slide Over, which devotes a portion of your screen to a second app. On the full-size iPad only, there's also a full split-screen mode for select programs and a picture-in-picture option that shrinks your video down to the corner.
Other improvements: There is a lot more to iOS 9. The addition of public transit in Maps was incredibly useful in select cities, though it will still be a while before I switch over from Google Maps. A new ad-blocking feature in iOS 9's Safari browser helps Web pages load faster. And a "low power mode" claims to add an extra hour or two of battery life (I found it bought me extra time on my phone, but it was not quite what Apple had claimed.)
Overall, iOS 9 is devoted to the small things that, taken together, deliver a much better experience overall. It succeeds in making your phone or tablet a tad more intuitive _ more like an extension of your own hand. And, perhaps more important, it forecasts the direction Apple's going: toward a system that often anticipates your needs and offers those up almost immediately.